Inquiry Clears County Division Of Bias Charge

February 3, 1989|By JON MARCUS, Staff Writer

An investigation has found no evidence of racial discrimination in the Broward County Streets and Highways Division, two years after complaints were filed against the agency by black employees and the NAACP.

The investigation, conducted by the county`s Office of Small Business and Minority Affairs, concluded that black employees still have a ``deeply embedded`` suspicion of discrimination because of problems in the past.

``It`s going to take a while before the people there are completely comfortable,`` said Norm Taylor, director of the minority affairs office.

After investigating four complaints, however, ``we found no evidence of overt discrimination,`` he said.

Highways division director Herb Culbreath said, ``There was no problem to start with. Some of the people who didn`t know the system believed they didn`t get promoted because they were black or whatever.``

In March 1986, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and two black county employees filed federal complaints alleging that blacks routinely were being denied promotions, were subjected to racial slurs by white employees and did not receive training for higher-level jobs.

Those complaints are pending before the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

``Our biggest problem is we let two or three people who were unhappy with the system upset the whole division,`` Culbreath said.

The county`s report said that 10 of 19 employees hired by the highways division in 1988 were minorities and that minorities also received four of 10 promotions last year.